


Case 1: Emily Addams

by ThatGoblin



Series: Reset [2]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Mark Fischbach - Freeform, Mentions of sex trafficking, Soulmates AU, counselor link, markiplier suprise, mentions/alludes to underage sex, private investigator rhett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23766079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatGoblin/pseuds/ThatGoblin
Summary: Sydney has daily lunches with Rhett and Link. Except this time it's just Link and he's got something up his sleeve.
Relationships: Link Neal/Original Female Character(s), Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal, Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal, Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal/Original Female Character(s), Rhett McLaughlin/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Reset [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706683
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Case 1: Emily Addams

It had been a week since I’d stayed the night at Rhett and Link’s. The day after, I spent some quiet time with them before going home. I hadn’t been back since, but there were lunch dates to ease back into things. After my small break down, I set up boundaries. While Link seemed content to have me there for a while, it didn’t feel okay. I think he was just trying to be nice for Rhett’s sake. My mental state had gotten better too, again lunch dates to talk to someone about not work and not my open feelings like with a counselor. Link came to the lunch dates too sometimes. It was weird at first, but then I began to get used to it. Seeing them once a day for an hour or so was nice.

It got me back on a schedule. I had to have such and such things done before hand so I could have time for lunch. Stevie didn’t seem to care one way or another, but I could tell there was a small curl of her lips every now and then to show she was pleased with my attitude adjustment. I had been down right crabby all the time before hand, getting testy at small things, but I had gotten easier to be around and work with. Things seemed to be on the uphill till one day it was just Link at lunch. I figured down the line it would happen, as he was a soulmate too, but I still didn’t really know him or trust him too much. 

“Rhett parking the car?” I asked, sitting at the table with him as a waitress brought us waters. 

“No, he’s not here actually. I wanted to talk to you alone, just the two of us,” Link said, giving the waitress a nod of thanks. 

“Okay,” I said, sitting down. “Is this going to turn into one of those jealousy talks? You know, the ones that have you telling me to keep my distance from Rhett and not make it a point to flirt with him or give him any ideas.”

“Uh, no. I didn’t plan on giving that talk at all as I’m not jealous of you,” Link said with a soft chuckle. “You and Rhett have a very different type of relationship compared to me and him. I’m not going to threaten you or tell you what to do. It’s obvious you both still are in love, but he isn’t exclusively loving you. I’m not a rebound either, so I’m not worried he’ll up and leave me for you. That’s not what I wanted to talk about.”

“Well then, look at me putting my foot in my mouth,” I said with a sigh. “What’s up then?”

“I’m a counselor, as you know, but I had a couple come in this week to work through some issues. Mainly their missing child. She’s been gone for a week and the police haven’t found any leads,” Link said.

“Uh, pretty sure that breaches some sort of HIPPA contract, you telling me this,” I said, raising a brow.

“I received permission from them when I said I knew someone who could possibly help them,” Link said. Oh that little sneak.

“I don’t do that anymore. I’m stopping you here. I am not a private investigator and won’t be again,” I said. “I quit and now I only do bounty work.”

“Rhett said that he worked with you a lot, as a team,” Link said. “He still does investigations, but why don’t you?”

“No, no. We’re not doing this. I’m not having you play shrink with my head to guilt me into taking a case that I don’t want,” I said, scrubbing my face. “So. . . Just tell me how your week is so far.”

“I counseled a grieving family over the disappearance of their teenage daughter, you?” Link asked, taking a sip of his water.

“I think I’m going to skip lunch,” I said before standing up. “Look, I appreciate what you did for me last week and the lunches afterwards, but I am not in the business of being the person to deal bad news anymore. If she’s been missing for a week, she probably ran away or went to a relatives place. Check with her friends. If it’s past two weeks, chances are she won’t be found.”

“Sounds like you just worked the case a bit to me,” Link said, raising his brows. I glared at him as he sat there looking pleased with himself. 

“I did not work the case, the police would have said the same thing,” I said. 

“Why not just take a look? It won’t hurt anything and unless you’ve got other, more important things to do other than look for a missing teen, I’m sure a fresh set of eyes would be good,” Link said. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Fine, fine. I will look into it. I’m not making promises and I’m not doing it for free.”

“Didn’t think you would, the family offered to pay a good price if you found their daughter. There’s already a reward for her safe return so that’ll be yours,” Link said.

“You don’t know how any of this works, do you? I get paid half before I do anything and half at the end. Nope, I’m not telling you how this works. I’m not getting into it,” I said, throwing my hands up. “You are sneaky and manipulative and evil. I see why Rhett likes you.”

“Well when you put it that way,” Link said with a chuckle. “I’m trying to make you do something you don’t want to, Sydney.”

“Sure seems like it,” I said.

“You’re better than running down people who skipped bail over traffic tickets,” Link said. “Rhett’s told me how good you used to be at helping people. I’m sure you’re still good at it, if not better.”

“Why do you even care?” I asked with a huff, sitting back down. I obviously wasn’t storming off and I was getting hungry. Might as well stay for food. “I get you’re his boyfriend now and stuff, but why the interest in my life? It has nothing to do with you and why is Rhett talking to you about me?”

“I’m doing this because Rhett cares deeply about you. Romantic love aside, you two were very close and were suddenly separated. He went through the same loss you did, Sydney. He went through the same hurt and instead of turning to the bottle and shutting down, he found me. One of his soulmates. I care about and love Rhett and he is still in love with you. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me too. Monogamy is overrated and letting yourself open up to the idea of loving more than one person can be freeing,” Link said. “This is for him, mostly, but also for you. I’m a bleeding heart and I hate seeing people in pain. If I can help, then I will do whatever I can. Especially for Rhett.”

“What has he told you about me?” I asked after a moment, feeling kind of like an ass for treating Link like he was an idiot. Guy knew his stuff and knew himself. That was a lot more than what I could say about myself. 

“Told me you two used to do private investigating. You’d have a lot of different cases, some tougher than others, but you managed to always help somehow. Even if it meant things didn’t end with a happy ending,” Link said. “He doesn’t talk about you other than in that context mostly and even then I have to pry it out of him.”

“Well at least he doesn’t spill secrets as easily as he used to,” I said with a snort as our food came. 

“Used to?” Link asked, raising a brow. 

“Rhett’s got a big mouth on him,” I said, dressing my burger how I wanted.

“Oh, I could have told you that,” Link said with a small snicker. The guy wasn’t half bad. 

After lunch, I said I would go over to the family’s place and have a look around. What I hadn’t planned on was Link tagging along. For as much as he wanted to help people, he was pretty damn curious as to what went into being a private investigator. Then again, he probably romanticized it with TV shows and books, then when Rhett came around he was head over heels in an instant. 

“Thank you for allowing us in,” I said, shaking the parents’ hands. Dawn and Ralph Addams. Dawn was a stay at home mom and Ralph worked in tech. Not that uncommon with Silicon Valley nearby. 

“You’re welcome. Dr. Neal said you did this for a living, finding people,” Mrs. Addams said as she gave us some iced tea. 

“I did. Came out of retirement when Link told me about it. Figured I’d give the case a once over and see if anything was missed,” I said, with a soft smile. The kid gloves were on with the family, at first anyways. 

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Mrs. Addams said, her eyes rimmed red from crying. “We’ve been worried sick. Ralph’s taken off work and we’re putting missing signs all over the streets and asking around, but there hasn’t been anything.”

“So, Emily disappeared sometimes last week?” I asked, getting down to business. “Was it before school, after school?”

“She didn’t come home from school Monday,” Mr. Addam’s said. “We saw her that morning and everything seemed fine. But the school called after she didn’t show up and we called the police right away.”

“How does Emily get to school?” I asked, setting my tea down. There was so much information to get from them and as much as I needed them to talk, I needed to hear their voices and tones. To watch for ticks or glances to each other. Already from the few minutes I’d been with them, I knew the dad was barely present in the kid’s life. His work hours were all over the place. The mom seemed to have this need to control everything, having the entire family’s schedule on the fridge in detail per 15 minutes as well as giving me a side eye when I didn’t set my glass down on the coaster in the exact perfect spot. The activities on the fridge listed everything off and mom was busy with everything from cooking to events for the neighborhood and school. There was no time for just sitting down to talk at dinner or one on one time with her husband or Emily.

These people had no clue what was going on in their kid’s life.

“Thank you, ma’am and sir. Is it okay if I see Emily’s room?” I asked. “I’d like to see if I could get some insight into what might have happened.”

“Oh, of course,” Mrs. Addams said. “Here, I’ll show you to it.” She took us to the back of the house where her daughter’s room was. 

“Thank you, if you could give us a little bit of time, I’d appreciate it,” I said.

“Yes, please, let us know if you find anything,” Mrs. Addams said, nodding hastily before retreating to the kitchen. 

“So?” Link asked once she was out of ear shot.

“So what?” I asked, looking around the room.

“So, can you detect anything?” He asked. I turned to look at him, narrowing my eyes. 

“That’s not how this works,” I said with a sigh. The kid’s room was normal for a teen girl. Posters of bands and boys she liked, pictures with friends, school awards and ribbons, a bed, a desk, a dresser. It was all very average. Going to her desk, I sat down to look through her things. The police would have gotten all the evidence they wanted from it like finger prints, leaving me free to pilfer as I wished. It was again, very average. Notes for school, planners, homework, average, average, average. Looking at her calendar on her wall it was vastly different than the one that her mom had on the fridge.

There were doodles and scribbles as well as each class she had on what day. Staring at Monday, she had Biology, Calculus, and English literature in the first half, then History and Home EC. in the afternoon. Something was off. I went back to her folders and found her work for her Monday classes still there with homework to do from the previous Friday. 

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, putting them back before turning to her computer. I turned it on to find it password protected. 

“What is it?” Link asked, looking to me as I began to search around her desk for a piece of paper.

“She wasn’t abducted,” I said as I got on my hands and knees to look under the desk.

“Wait, what? How do you know that?” Link asked as I found what I was looking for. Peeling the piece of paper taped in a very hard to reach place for anyone without small fingers, I popped back up.

“Her class folders that she would have taken with her on Monday are still here,” I said, typing in the password to have the screen take us to her desktop. “Boom.”

“How are you doing this?” Link asked with a small chuckle. 

“Kids hide their password and they have small fingers,” I said with a snort. “Besides, she wouldn’t have accidentally left them. OCD mom would have double checked, if not triple checked that she had everything. Surprised she didn’t pack her bag for her.”

“Dawn’s working on it, giving Emily her space and not invading it,” Link said with a sigh.

“That may be, but then you have absentee dad and walled up mom. Makes for a great case of getting into trouble. Especially on the internet,” I said, bringing up her browser history. Mostly fan sites for the bands, some blog sites, and, surprisingly, a dating site. “Oh dear. Someone thinks she’s grown up.” Bringing up the meta date from the browser, I saw she’d last been on that site the night before she went missing. In fact it was the last site pulled up before she went missing. 

“She’s 16, why is she on a dating website?” Link asked with a sigh. 

“Surprised you don’t know that,” I said, logging in with the saved password on file. “Also don’t save passwords. Makes it easier to break into accounts.”

“I don’t treat Emily,” Link said. “Just her mother. You only get so much information about someone when it’s not them telling you.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” I said before pulling up Emily’s messages on her profile. It was mostly guys wanting to send dick picks or sending cheesy pick up lines or straight up porn roleplay. I hated the internet sometimes. 

“It says here she’s 18, lives at home, and is studying to be a pastry chef in college,” Link said, reading bits of her profile outloud. “Why is she lying about her age and school?”

“You’re a counselor, you should know this,” I said, glancing at him.

“I work with adults only and it’s mostly with grief counseling. I never could work with kids, it’s hard. They’re innocent and don’t understand why a loveone isn’t around anymore or why this person they trusted hurt them. People that are able to do that are amazing, but I’m too tenderhearted for that,” Link said. 

Actually spending time with Link, talking to him and getting to know him on a deeper level than that he liked lemon ice water was interesting. His personality outside of trying to ‘help’ people wasn't what I expected. I thought he’d be colder, more calculated, but instead he was the guy that probably cried at Folger’s commercials at Christmas time. 

“To answer your question, kids like to think they're a lot more of an adult than they really are. Most of the time it's shoved down their throats by society that you have to have a boyfriend or girlfriend or partner to feel validated, especially by the trashy teen shows," I said.

"Rhett loves those shows," Link said, reading over my shoulder.

"More than he should. Looks like we have a lead though,” I said, turning back to the computer. The messages that stuck out where the ones from the last two weeks. A guy named Landon had been messaging Emily and the way the conversations went told me she was head over heels for this guy and he was an idiot who lived with his mom. Taking out my phone, I snapped pictures of the messages before finding his phone number. Yup, he was an idiot.

“Did you find something good?” Link asked. 

“Found a phone number of a guy she planned to meet up with on Monday and his phone number. Now, usually I’d say call the cops, but she went willingly so if something happens between now and the warrant and they leave then they’re in the wind,” I said. “Bureaucracy at its finest.” Turning off the computer, I put everything back the way it was before walking out of the room. In the kitchen the parents were snapping at one another quietly, so I made sure they could hear me coming. “Thank you for letting me see her room. I think I have some pretty good ideas on where to go from here.”

“Oh thank you,” Mrs. Addams said, tears brimming in her eyes again. “Dr. Neal is always right when he suggests a solution.”

“Always right,” I said, looking to Link with narrowed eyes. “We’ll get out of your hair and keep working. Again, thank you for your time.” Excusing ourselves, Link and I left to go to the car.

“Where to now?” Link asked as he got in the driver’s seat to start the car. 

“I got a guy I can contact about the phone number. I used to work with him back in the day and he’s good with tracking things,” I said. “He owns a bar north of here about half an hour.” 

“A bar? Really?” Link asked, looking at me. “You think you should be going into a bar right now?”

“Look, I can control myself when I’m sober,” I said, glaring at him. “It’s when I’m drunk that I get into trouble. So don’t worry about it. Just drive.”

“If you say so,” Link said, ignoring me mimicking him and mocking him. 

After we pulled into the parking lot of the bar, Link followed me into the dive like building. It was dark, had pool tables on one end of the room and table to sit at on the other end with a bar running the full length of the back. 

“We’re not open for another 10 minutes,” a deep voice called from the middle of the bar. 

“Then why’s your door unlocked?” I asked, walking over the the shaggy haired man who was cleaning glasses. 

“Syd, no. I told you no last time, I’ll tell you no again. Get out of my bar,” he snapped, pointing to the door.

“What did you do?” Link asked, looking at me wide eyed.

“It was a small thing,” I said with a sigh.

“You broke three people’s noses and two other people’s ribs! No! I’m not serving you!” The man said, his voice getting higher in pitch the louder and more riled up he got.

“I’m not asking for a drink, Mark,” I snapped. “I’m sober now, thank you.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Mark said with a snort. 

“Besides, all five of those people deserved it,” I grumbled. 

“If you don’t want to drink, then why are you here?” Mark asked. 

“I need help tracking a phone number connected to a missing teen,” I said, holding up my phone to show the number. “Can you help?” Mark looked like he was going to fight me, but then he sighed and nodded.

“I’ll help. Who’s Velma to your Scooby?” He asked, nodding to Link. I snorted and shook my head with a smirk.

“That’s Link Neal. Link this is Mark Fischbach. I used to work with him a long time ago,” I said as Mark lead the way to the back. 

“Did he also do private investigating?” Link asked. Mark snickered as I rolled my eyes at the scruffy man behind the bar. 

“Something like that,” I said. Following Mark to the back where he had a room set up full of computers and equipment for them, I got my phone out to give him the number. 

“Alright, give me the number,” Mark said as he sat down in front a large screen. I rattled it off to him as he typed it in. “Looks like he’s using a VPN bouncer. It’ll be a few minutes. It’s not that great of one.”

“Thanks, Mark, I owe you one,” I said.

“You owe me a lot more than one,” he said. “How’s Rhett doing these days? You two work things out?”

I was silent a moment, glancing to Link who was looking at me. 

“No. We divorced. We see each other here and there though,” I said. 

“Damn, you two were the dream,” Mark said, not even realizing who Link was. “Soulmates too. It must have been hell without him. Probably has some bimbo keeping him company at night to stroke his ego.”

“Uh, I doubt it,” I said, biting my lip to keep from laughing as Link glared at me. “Something tells me he’s definitely not with a bimbo.”

“Oh I bet he is. Rhett was an ass man and loved the thic-c-c boys and girls and in between,” Mark said with a laugh. 

“Is my butt thic-c-c?” Link asked, turning around to show me his rear in tight jeans.

“Eh, you’re getting there,” I said before breaking down into laughter at the noise he made at me.

“Keep up those squats, my dude,” Mark said to Link. “Also, the elliptical does wonders as well.”

“I’ll have to look into that,” Link said with a sigh. “How long does this usually take?”

“About now,” Mark said. “It’s a civilian version so it takes just a few minutes.”

“Civilian?” Link asked.

“Yeah, military and government bouncers take hours if not days to track, so this one was a piece of cake,” Mark said, writing out the address for me. 

“Thanks Mark, I owe you. . . Several,” I said, taking the piece of paper. 

“Don’t mention it. Ever. Please don’t mention it to anyone outside of this room,” Mark said. “Keep your head up, I’m sure Rhett will realize what a catch he had and when you go back in a giant gesture of love he’ll be swept off his feet.”

“Oh, hey, Mark, did I introduce to Link? Rhett’s current boyfriend?” I asked, grinning as Mark who went from smiling to a very angry face in two seconds. 

“Get out of my bar! I hate you! Get out!” He shrieked and pointed at me. “You horrible she-devil! You’re banned for life!”

“Love you Mark!” I cooed, blowing him a kiss as I led Link out of the bar to the car. “Oh that was fun. I should come harass him more often.”

“How do you know him?” Link asked as we got in the car. “The man had a backroom of security and tech that would make MIT jealous.”

“Oh I know him from back in the day when we served together,” I said, waving him off a bit.

“Served? You two were in the military together?” He asked as I plugged the address into his GPS. 

“Something like that. That’s how I met Rhett. He was stationed in Alaska for training when we met,” I said.

“I knew he’d served as well and was discharged after getting injured in combat,” Link said. “I didn’t know that’s how you two met. Were you in the same troop group thing?”

“Uh, not exactly,” I said with a soft chuckle. “I was basically black ops and he was regular army.”

“Wait, what?” Link said, stopping at a stop sign to stare at me. “You were black ops!?”

“Yeah, only female to be on it to date, at least publicly,” I said. “It’s your turn to go.”

“This explains so much,” he muttered as he drove.

“What do you mean explains so much?” I asked.

“I mean, the need to be your own boss, your general attitude, the guns, the physique-”

“What do you mean my physique!?” I yelled.

“I mean it’s very muscular and fit for a lady!” Link cried. “Usually the stereotypical strong women are very lean and shapely, but you’re a bit bigger than that.”

“Are you saying I look like a man then?” I demanded.

“No! I’m saying you’re very, very fit and chiseled! It’s nice! You have a nice body and nice assets that I’m sure a lot of people enjoy, myself included! Please don’t hurt me!” Link screamed.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I grumbled. “You like my ass?”

The rest of the drive was spent in a much calmer state of discussion. Mostly about what to do when we got there. The plan had been for Link to wait in the car while I knocked on the door. He wanted to go with, but I was not risking his soft head. Rhett would be very upset if I got his boyfriend killed. 

“Are you sure, it’s safe for you to do this?” Link asked as we packed down a few houses from the address.

“As safe as it can be,” I said. Getting out of the car, I made sure to have my bail bondsman badge on my pants waist next to my taser gun in its holster. I wasn’t impersonating an officer if I never said I was one. 

“Maybe we should call the police instead,” Link said. His voice was getting higher and he kept wiping his palms on his jeans as he looked at him.

“Remember what I told you earlier? How me and Rhett met? This is probably the least scariest thing I’ve ever done and I’ve jumped out of a helicopter seconds before it exploded,” I said, giving him a wink. “Hold the fort down for Mama.”

“I don’t know if that really happened or not, but be safe!” Link called after me as I shut the car door. Walking to the single story, white house, I looked around to observe the neighborhood. It wasn’t poor, but it wasn’t rich either. A pretty middle of the road place for some guy to keep his 16 year old girlfriend. At the door, I knocked, waiting for an answer. The TV was on in the living room and I could hear at least three other men inside. Shit. 

I knocked again, feeling my stomach drop as more people started to talk. I couldn’t hear any girls, but I was hoping she was here. There was a part of me that hoped she wasn’t, because I had a pretty good idea what this place was. Another knock and someone finally came to the door. A pudgy fella that had a tribal tattoo around one bicep and a buzz cut that said ‘necessity’ not ‘style.’

“The fuck do you want bitch?” He asked, glaring at me. 

“Well, first of don’t call me bitch, only my ex-husband can call me that, and two I’m looking for Emily Addams. You wouldn’t happen to know if she’s here or not, would you?” I said, putting on a sickly sweet smile. 

“I don’t know who you’re talking about, lady,” the guy said. “Ain’t no girls here.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind me taking a look to make sure then, would ya?” I said, stepping into the doorway to keep him from shutting it on me. 

“Cops can’t come in without a warrent!” He yelled.

“Well, guess what, hoss? I’m not a cop,” I smirked. “Now, where is Emily?” 

“What’s going on?” Another guy, similar build and hair with several barbed wire tattoos around his arms. 

“This crazy bitch keeps asking for someone not here,” the first guy said. 

“You really don’t wanna call me that,” I said, cracking my neck. I HATED it when someone called me a bitch. They always made it sound so beneath them and that I deserved to be there. 

“We’re not buying girl scout cookies, but if you’re selling something else we could talk,” the second guy said, leering at me.

“Oh Jesus,” I said with a groan. “Are we done here? Emily!” I called, moving forward into the house. “Emily are you here!?”

“Shut that bitch up!” The second guy snarled. 

“I warned you,” I growled. The first guy came at me, trying to grab me by the neck. I evaded it to grab and bend his arm behind his back and pulled. Hard. “Now where is she?” I snarled.

“Fuck you bitch!” He yelled at me.

“Leroy don’t you fuckin’ talk!” The second guy yelled at him as he went for a baseball bat as I twisted his arm more, hearing small popping in his shoulder.

“Back bedroom! You’re breaking my fucking arm!” He screamed. 

“Good boy. Now sit.” I shoved him into the other guy as he went to swing the bat. Another guy came from the back bedroom with another bat, swinging wildly. Backing up, I let him climb over his fallen boys before letting him swing into the wall to get it stuck for a split second. I threw my elbow in his face hard, before taking the bat for myself. He fell back with blood pouring from his nose as the second guy was up and cumming at me with his bat. These guys were bad with aim. I ducked to let it go past me, shoving the end of my bat into his gut quick and hard. 

When no one else got up, I stepped over them to get to the room in the back. Inside it was dark with the window covered and a single mattress on the floor. On that mattress was a teen who’d been crying, trying to cover herself with a sheet that was filthy. 

“Hey kiddo,” I said softly, moving over to her. “I’m here to get you home. You’re name’s Emily, right?”

“Yeah,” she nodded as she started to sob. I wrapped my arms around to the guide her out. Link had pulled forward and was rushing to the door as we got outside. 

“Sydney! Behind you!” He cried. I pushed Emily to the side as I jumped out of the way of Leroy swinging a bat. 

“You fucking crazy bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!” He screamed.

“Oh you just seem to know what buttons to push,” I growled. I pulled my taser gun from the holster and fired at him. He went down like a sack of potatoes. “Did you call the cops?” I asked. Before he could answer, quite a few cop cars showed up. 

We were detained for a bit, questioned as Emily was given clothes and her parents arrived. The reunion was tearful and I couldn’t help but feel a slight jealousy towards them. What I wouldn’t give to have my own daughter in my arms and they were squandering their time with their kid away. I didn’t know if they’d change or what, but I hoped they did. 

“Hey,” Link said standing next to me as we watched the men be taken away in handcuffs. It was a human trafficking ring, a small one, but one that had been getting bigger and bigger and I had just blown the top off of it. I was a hero in a sense, but I’d just done my job. It felt like I had finished a mission and while it was worthy to celebrate, we never did. It was just our job to us and nothing special to celebrate every time. “Sydney?”

“Huh?” I said, looking up to Link. “What? Sorry, I was, uh. . . I got lost for a second.”

“That happen often?” Link asked. 

“Sometimes. . . Probably too much,” I said with a shrug. “What were you saying?”

“I was saying that the family is glad you helped find their daughter and they’ll get the money to you as soon as possible,” Link said, looking over my face.

“No, it’s fine,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I don’t need it. Tell them to use it on a family vacation. Maybe something with bonding time and not alone time.”

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate the suggestion,” Link said with a nod. “Are you okay? That was a lot to happen back there.”

“That? That’s tame,” I said with a snort. “Just another Wednesday for me.”

“I don’t know, you just. . . You seem distant,” he said with a hum. 

“You barely know me, I could be very cuddly right now for all you know,” I said with a shrug.

“No, you’re distant,” Link said. “You’re always welcome over for dinner. Just so you know.” He nudge my shoulder with his, making me smile softly.

“And miss gorging out on Taco Tuesdays in the mall? Please,” I said with a chuckle. “I’ll take you up on it another time though. My head’s kinda full now.”

“I gotcha,” Link said with a nod. “Well, we’re free to go, so I’ll take you back to your place.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, following him to his car. The drive home was quiet, but content. I had done a lot for the family in one day. It almost never happened like that. Things were never that easy or clean. Then again, not all criminals were masterminds. Some were just very stupid people that got lucky a few times.

Link pulled up to my place, parking the car to let me out.

“Thanks for the help. I'm not sure what would have happening if they hadn't found the girl in time,” Link said. 

“I don’t know. They just didn’t look hard enough. Suburban cops aren’t as vigilant as some other are. Crime doesn’t happen like that very often to them so things get over looked,” I said with a shrug. “Thanks for the ride, be sure to tell Rhett I said ‘hi’.” 

“Here, I’ll walk you to your door,” Link said, getting out before I could protest. We walked in, chatting about getting together the next day for lunch when we got to my door. “Maybe you should think about getting back into this business. I bet you’d like it a lot better than chasing people down every day.”

“Listen here, you,” I said, playfully poking him in the chest. “I will seriously think about it. I promise. I’m not going to jump ship suddenly.”

“I know, but I had to get that last little push in there,” he said with a chuckle. “I had fun today. Well, as much fun as you can looking for a missing person.”

“I get it. It’s weird for some, but fun for others even though it probably shouldn’t be called fun,” I said. “But I did too.”

“We’ll have to do it again sometime,” he said, smiling at me. This guy was confusing. One minute he’s annoying and clinical, the next he’s warm and fun. I could see why Rhett was in love with him. Which confused me as it made me question my own feelings. 

“Definitely,” I said, smiling back. “I’ll see you tomorrow though for lunch, yeah?”

“I’ll be there,” he said.

“Good.” We stared at each other for what seemed seconds but was also too long before he suddenly had me backed against my door, kissing me hard. I groaned as I wrapped my arms around him to weave my fingers through his hair. This wasn’t right, but fuck if it felt good. A few moments of heavy breathing kisses, he pulled away. 

“Oh crap,” Link said, panting softly.

“Yeah, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, fumbling for my keys. 

“Yeah, see ya,” he said before retreating. Getting inside my apartment, I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. 

“Oh what the fuck did I just start?” I groaned into my hands.

**Author's Note:**

> updates on this one will probably be every few days considering they'll be bigger than The Pack, BUT that means lots of fun mystery content for you guys! yay!?


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